Cooper & Parker's Blog: Interesting Past Few Months!

The past several months have been nothing short of ups and downs. A lot of important milestones happening without family and friends or completely missed all together, sports seasons starting...but never finishing. We sure are missing our old normal....but doing the best to adjust to our new normal these days. Cooper and Parker are doing well, considering. They absolutely love being at home (maybe too much!), spending a lot of extra time with their dog...but they do miss their family and friends. What a blessing technology has been though. They get to see their classmates and teachers each day during a live Zoom lesson and they get to Facetime their friends and play video games with them as well. They even were able to attend a Zoom memorial service to honor my Uncle Bob that passed away suddenly.

The start of it all for us... We had been looking forward to the kid's Spring Break trip to Orlando back in mid-March, fast passes were lined up and bags were packed. We couldn't wait to try the new Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios. A week prior to leaving, the Coronavirus concerns started to spread. We decided to still go as planned, but quickly realized by day 2 that we better head back home. Disney closed, restaurants were starting to shut down and stores were running out of supplies. The rest of Spring Break was spent at home playing lots of Monopoly, bike riding (Parker finally decided he wanted to learn to ride a bike!), puzzles and chalk drawing.

As the week of Spring Break ended, our fears of the kids not returning to school became reality. Homeschooling began and we are still going strong. The kids administration and teachers have done a phenomenal job and we are grateful for their determination to keep the kids learning and in a routine. We are proud to say, both kids have straight A's this quarter with just 2 weeks left in the school year. Cooper's teacher is making a recommendation to the principal that he be placed in the gifted program next year...despite not being able to be tested (which was supposed to have happened after the return from Spring Break). He's really excited about that.

Believe it or not, the Easter Bunny still came during the pandemic. The kids were quite concerned. This Easter will go down as the strangest one in history. We started the day off with a Zoom call with my family, followed by an outdoor visit with Lynn & Gene as they sat on their lanai and we sat in the grass outside of their lanai and we ended the day visiting with my parents in their driveway sitting 6 feet apart (at least bloody mary's were involved)! Our neighborhood Easter egg hunt was obviously cancelled, so we joined other parents in decorating windows with pictures of eggs, so they kiddos could bike ride and do egg hunts.

The kids are excited for summer, but keep asking what they are going to do. That's a good question!